Retrospectacles

I suspect that sometimes we move onward into time with our toes pointing backward, the mind’s eye trying to locate a coordinate that has already been crossed and parenthesed. In academics, there is so often a demand for swift and efficient recall and recollection of material that has already been taught, and so it becomes the job of a contortionist to move ‘forward.’ Herein lies the problem, I suppose: the idea that there is a set destination point, a coordinate in parentheses that can easily be summarized and ordered into a sensible sequence. Geography 495 went away from that; it was intentionally unformatted, and launched without a clear trajectory. For this reason, I think I struggled with an unfamiliar sense of aimlessness in the unbounded microcosm of Geography 495. In fact, it was only during the last final push – the day of our Guelaguetza – that I felt like I was part of “it,” whatever “it” was, exactly.

– Hands –
As I reflected earlier in my Journal, what was so intriguing about my experience on the day of the party was the intimate relationship between my own state of mind and the engagement of my hands in purposeful work. The significance of “hands on” is, I think, at the heart of Dona Vicky’s own campaign. I almost cannot believe how blind I was to something so fundamentally at the heart of Dona Vicky’s work and her aspirations, struggles and triumphs. I am also beginning to suspect that, had I found the opportunity to participate in one of the group cooking events, my whole dispositional framework throughout this course, or this experience, would have been substantially different – more positive, more focused, more understood and internalized. When I re-evaluate the value of my own “escape” through making music or playing sports, I recognize how fundamentally important the hands are in these activities. I wrote in one of my journals that, “in the spontaneity of musical and physical, corporeal improvisation, I can escape this crippling self-consciousness that makes all my analyses and critiques of the ‘world,’ or the ‘system’ seem phony, aloof, contrived, irrelevant.” What I realize now is that the feeling of “escape” or liberation is reliant on engaging my hands in meaningful activity, and connecting through touch with an uncontestable, real, meaningful “out there.”
Where I might do this through playing violin or ultimate frisbee, Dona Vicky does it through cooking. So when I entered Dona Vicky’s kitchen on that hectic Friday morning before our big party, and put my hands to work with these beautiful, fierce peers and mentors, I finally felt IN it. It did not matter anymore what I had not been able to do, because I was engaged in this real, graspable, active moment.

– The Guelaguetza –
The party was a miraculous weaving-together of all the dynamic, coloured strings of the semester. The emotions, the disenchantment with academia, the doubts, the hopes, all of it: like the coloured strings of beads, or the beautifully woven blouses, or the rich mixture of mole ingredients that were on display on the Oaxacan artisan table that night, our Guelaguetza was the summation of so many different colours, textures, and ingredients. I am beginning to think that if your hands are engaged, if you dip them into the batter or braid the coloured threads yourself, you will find that you are inside of what it is you’re trying to understand; so the action is its own meaning. And that kind of meaning not only carries a lot of gravity, but it connects you to a world outside of yourself, which seems to me to be the most difficult and most rewarding challenge of being a human.
Though Dona Vicky will not ever really know it, her presence here this semester has left me with a crucial and too often undervalued appreciation and respect for the work of hands. Here, I mean to appreciate not only the products of the labour of the hands, but also – and more so – the incredibly healing process of using the hands to create, to cook, to play, to write, and to grasp. I suspect that Dona Vicky – beneath her fierce, boisterous antics and expressions – quietly knows that she can cure blindness with the diligent, intentional and intelligent work of her hands.

– A question of Ethics –
Before I sign out, I think it is critical to raise a question that Dr. Juanita posed during our wrap-up/reflection get together: Was inviting Dona Vicky to Vancouver, and more specifically, to our Geography 495 class, ethical? For many of the students in 495, for me, Dona Vicky’s hardships were unimaginable. Let alone the difficulty she and a handful of individuals in Vancouver had in obtaining the legal rights to have her come to Vancouver, she endured months of separation from family and community (the pains of which reached a climax on the day of our Guelaguetza, when she felt that her family in Oaxaca needed her to be there with them). Several of the students of 495, myself included, were plagued with guilt for being an insubstantial community of support for the duration of her stay. Was this an acceptable situation for anyone? No doubt every individual who participated in 495 learned a considerable deal over the course of the semester, but critical questions of ethics in our own environments/situations were shied away from. As conscientious students, peers and friends, we should afford to be more honest and critical of the projects and social dimensions that we ourselves are engaging in.
That being said, thank you to everyone this semester for incredibly sharp insights, witty antics, emotional outpourings and what was indeed a subversive, thought-provoking semester!

Hannah E.

Lessons learned…

I admit that I was dreading the debriefing tonight but I am glad that it happened and that I went because I realized that like Geoff said, “Solidarity is not easy”.  However, what is beautiful about it is the collective care and support we feel from each other.  The people in our class have helped me to believe in myself and the ability to use what power I have been given, directed into positive action.

For my blog entry I wanted to include this piece from my journal.  I hope these lessons learned will be relevant to more than just me.

The egg white test

          As we were preparing the food, chopping, frying, washing – Geoff was busy translating the instructions.  I admire his ability to participate and translate.  It is not an easy job especially when Dona Vicki is instructing a variety of people in different tasks.  She, like us, tends to assume that we all understand everything which makes it all the more interesting when we do something that makes it evident we were not hearing at all.  And so as the night progressed, it came time to whip the whites ‘until they passed the upside down bowl’ test.  For me the ‘upside down bowl’ test is merely a common understanding that the egg whites needed to be very stiff.  But for Dona Vicki, the test was a part of the cooking experience.  She looked at the fluffy whites, nodded her head and flipped the bowl upside down.  It was not a surprise that the whites stayed in the bowl.  After all, she’s done this hundreds of times and would be able to tell if the whites were right without performing the test.  So why perform the test??  Perhaps it is an education tool – she wanted us to know that this is what she meant, and that if done properly we would not loose our whites on the floor.  Or perhaps it is tradition – your mother did this, you do this, it is an integral part of preparing the dish.  Maybe it is a combination of those things.  One thing is certain though, this real action defines what it means to be Dona Vicki and to live her life.  She does not wait for someone else to do something.  She does it.  She is not afraid to do something that others would find risky or foolish.  And she does these things because she has a strong belief that dignity is a right.

          What’s in a name?

                   We asked Dona Vicki what the name of the soup was.  She said vegetable soup.  We probed her.  “You mean there isn’t a special name for the soup that defines it a little better?”  She looked at us and laughed as if we were a bit crazy.  “No” she replied.  Since that time we have been discussing more creative ways to call the recipes.  I think in the end we decided to call it what it is.  This provided a little cultural lesson for me.  Here, we would like to call something a fancy name so that people will be more interested in the product.  Dona Vicki could care less about the name because she knows the product is real and good.  Why would we need to call it something fancy?  The dishes speak for themselves.  I wonder how many times in life we are focusing on the wrong thing?  We are trying to make something seem good, rather than just making sure it is good.

The oil in the pan

          A few cooking sessions later we were making vegetable soup again.  I thought I knew the recipe so I was helping get some things started without consulting Dona Vicki directly.  Unfortunately, we had not listed an important step the last time we made the soup.  The oil in the pan must be hot before the onions and garlic are added to the soup or they will take on the oil flavour.  Who knew?  I felt bad for potentially reducing our soups quality, but luckily it turned out fine.  So hot oil – solidarity lessons?  Perhaps we can be well intentioned people but as well we can be often misguided.  This can cause the movement we are supporting to take on our flavour, and take away from the purpose of the movement itself.  Maybe in order to be involved we need to have the fire and passion to make sure we are not the movement; that the movement can operate without us, but with us that it can be made even bigger.  I saw an interesting TED talk the other day.  It was about movements, and lessons we can learn.  The most important lesson was that any lone nut can start doing something crazy, but what changes that crazy thing into a movement is the first follower.  The first follower has to have the guts to say, yes! this is an important idea and join the leader in order to encourage other people to join the movement.

Ciao, Marella

Somos todos un país

It feels somewhat strange to be writing this entry, now that our class is over—to know that I won’t be seeing everyone’s faces in class next week, getting cozy in the kitchen with Dona Vicky, or laughing at more of our lost-in-translation moments. I think we had a really great group of people going, and it makes me a bit sad to realize that this situation will never reproduce itself again—with the same people, in the same moment in time. Now that school is done for the term, I have to fully admit to myself how much fun I was having (in a class?! Amazing!), and how close I’d become with some of my classmates: sharing all that time both inside and out of the classroom, cooking together, eating, laughing, sharing stories, recipes, and languages—it was truly a very special meeting of minds and hearts. I really hope that we will all be able to stay in touch, and hopefully to take with us what we have all learned from this experience, sharing it with others along the way, and spreading the positive energy that our class managed to create.

A large part of what has affected me over the past few months, has been simply witnessing the potential of a committed group of individuals to achieve a collective goal. Our class was composed of people from all walks of life, different disciplines, various ages, and diverse dreams, and yet, we managed to unite to contribute all of our particular strengths and interests to our project. It’s so rare to get a group of people together who are able to share their diverse backgrounds and lives with each other, and yet manage to find this incredible common ground that unites them; seeing the ways in which our class managed to do this, I think the concept of solidarity truly revealed itself.

From the outset, I think each and every one of us realized that we would have to leave a certain part of us behind, in order to collaborate and communicate respectfully—for most of us (students), I believe, this part was a certain pattern of thinking that, whether we admit it or not, stems from a very particular societal, economic, and geographical positioning. As others have expressed before me, it isn’t always easy to identify with extreme poverty and suffering, when you yourself have known none of these things throughout your life, and are, in many ways (albeit indirectly) linked to a system that creates these very disparities. Personally, I found myself having to question, again and again, what we were trying to achieve, in raising awareness of the pressing issues in Oaxaca in Vancouver. Were we simply triggering the guilty bones in all of our bodies, and those of others, by forcing ourselves to bear witness to and hear testimony of terrible injustices? Would this experience be nothing more than another plea falling on ambivalent ears, and numb minds—easily silenced by the fruits of deep pockets? I am the first to admit that I had many doubts at the beginning, and that I certainly felt insecure about my own role in the entire process.

How far we have come. That is what I think to myself now, and what I thought to myself on the night of the event—when all eyes in the room, regardless of race, ethnicity, social position or gender, were on Dona Vicky, standing proud and fierce in front of us, sharing her personal history with strangers. After all that we’d accomplished, I felt like we had arrived at a king of beginning—one where we could all come to the table as equals—UBC students, faculty, friends and family, the members of CIPO-Van, and of course, Dona Vicky. Because after many classes spent sharing stories, ideas, and insights, and many evenings spent sharing food, laughter, and appetites, it became evident that we are not all that different after all. At our very core, nationalities, ethnicities, political beliefs and histories aside, we are all inherently linked, in that we are all human, and thus malleable, and subject to emotions, and the hungers and pains of the body. We laugh at jokes (even in translation), we love food, our bodies desire movement, and we crave the companionship of friends and family on a level as elemental as the air we breathe. Most importantly, we will fight fiercely to defend our right to do all these things—because the basic dignity and liberties afforded to one human being should be accessible to all. Our identities are not defined by our wealth, education, or by the cultures that breed us; as Gloria Anzaldua writes:

“Your identity has roots you share with all people and other beings—spirit, feeling, and body make up a greater identity category. The body is rooted in the earth, la tierra itself. You meet ensoulment in trees, in woods, in streams. The roots del arbol de la vida of all planetary beings are nature, soul, body … somos todos un país.”

We are all one country. The boundaries and borders that divide us (Canada/Mexico, and otherwise) are of our own creation, the product of societies that have turned their eyes from the fundamental similarities that exist between all human beings. This is what this class helped me to realize, and I would like to thank everyone who was a part of this beautiful endeavour!

-Paloma P.

What really matters…

There’s a certain privileged point of view that I thought I would get by writing my blog entry after the course had come to an end. The privilege, I thought, would come from being able to reflect on the totality of what this course and the experience meant to me. Similarly, I was under the impression that by leaving it to the end I would avoid having to second guess the outcomes or the progress of the course as it was happening. I realize now that this is something that goes against many of the values that I have in fact learnt from this course. I find it hard to tell myself, as I reflect on it, that this particular course finishes here: 2 weeks after the final class and nearly one week after the last of the dishes from the event we put (Solidarity Speaks and Eats: A Guelaguetza) was cleaned, dried and delivered back to the owners. The simplicity and ignorance of telling my self that this would be the case are immediately put to rest when I remember one of the many things Doña Vicky told us:

“One day you will face similar adversities, and you will remember one thing ‘how right was this old woman in teaching us about what she’s learnt in her struggles’”

Everything we’ve done in this course has been a process, we set certain goals and standards for ourselves, but the end product of the work we put was never predetermined. It is something that was developed collectively and it grew as we became more aware of ourselves as a class, what we could realistically accomplish and, most importantly I think, we spent a lot of time listening to what it was that needed to be done so that the idea of the project would be beneficial to all parties involved. We didn’t set out on a massive fundraising/charity campaign. We could have easily spent the entire term canvassing door-to-door, room-to-room, outside the SUB etc. asking people for money. The exchange of knowledge there would have been minimal, it would have created little problems for anyone outside the classroom, and with enough pressure it would have been quite successful. But not once, and I sincerely mean it that I NEVER, not once, heard Doña Vicky talk about money. Issues of poverty and oppression have come up, undoubtedly; it would have been ignorant to leave money out of our discussions of these topics. But she never once said that her goal here was to be able to bring a stash of money back to her community. I think I’ve seen enough ads on TV asking people to contribute financial aid to realize when a money grabbing scheme is presented in front of me.

Not once did I get the impression that our end goal was to collect as many funds as possible for CIPO.  Still, I don’t think I had the lucidity to realize that as we were working on our project. To be honest, this came to me after the event had wrapped up and all I wanted to know was how much money we managed to raise. That the event was a success, and I’m saying this without having really consulted with any one else, I cannot deny. But for some pathetic reason, all I wanted to know at the end of it was a number. I didn’t care to ask my family and friends if they had learnt anything or if it had been a good experience. I was asking around for a number and a total amount of money we raised. I thought this was for the best of CIPO-RFM, especially since I knew that the funds would go straight to them, and that to some extent fundraising had been one of the aims for our event. But momentarily a number was all I cared about.

One thing that really does make me happy and satisfied, despite my impulsive care for the money, was that people did in fact get so much more than they bargained for the night of the event. Without my inquiring about it, friends and family came to me to congratulate the class on the evening, the cookbook and the project as a whole. It seems to me that our intentions and our efforts really played out in the end. People were able to grasp where we were coming from in our efforts and, despite my earlier concerns about it, they really understood how Doña Vicky and her community’s struggle led them to take the roads they’ve taken. Their struggle came out in her emotional speech and, of immense value to the people of Vancouver, the message of their efforts and lessons learnt in time came out and struck a chord despite the distances that might separate Oaxacans from Vancouverites physically, culturally or economically.

I would like to thank everyone involved in the class for making this a truly unique experience!

-Franco

Taking it further

We have really gone through so much in this class, from the fear that Doña Vicki might not be able to make it to Vancouver, to making decisions on what groups to form, to the build up and preparations of the final event and, lastly our grand finale event, the Guelaguetza. The Guelaguetza was amazing, I hope you were there to experience it, and to be part of the performance telling story of the resistance against the construction of the McDonalds in the center of the plaza in Oaxaca, which is a resistance to express the right to represent your own culture in your own place, to resist peacefully with flowers despite physical violence.

I want to say, that the class, however, is not just about the achievements, but also about the learning experience and the relationships we have built, which is what we will take with us in our divergent paths.

I am writing this blog and it is the last piece of writing I will do for my university career. I wish I could make you understand what I have experienced through this course, what I have learned. I realized that university can very stimulating intellectually, but can be extremely isolating from people elsewhere, but this class has proved that wrong.

At the core of what I have experienced in this class, and reflecting on my understanding of ‘solidarity’, is that the greatest thing to learn is to value relationships. I say this because having Doña Vicki in our class and hearing her stories about the hardships the people from her pueblo have gone through is when I begin to understand something that I could not relate to before. I will probably never go through the struggles she and her community in Oaxaca have, which is exactly why it is important for me, and you if you are in the same position, to value what you have and use it as a learning, to understand how it is that we affect the lives of these people and what it is we can do to make a positive change, to be the change, to strive for justice. To be honest, I am still figuring it out myself, it’s challenging for sure, but it is the sort of challenge I have the luxury to think about, and I really want you to think about it too.

So that is what I think, we have to take this class further, to embrace our learning and take it with us wherever we go, value those relationships from which we learned so much. Understand the contradictions we embody, and understand that we have so much that we can do. I hope I find that path…

In any case, thank you all for being part of that process.

– Yayoi (Yosh)

An Event to Remember!

Last Friday, our class finale event “Solidarity speaks & Eats: A Guelaguetza” took place.  After months of planning and weeks of scrambling, at 7pm the doors opened to an event of solidarity.  It was hard to tell if the event was going to go off without a hitch even just a few hours prior as emails and phone calls went back and forth about food prep, transportation, sound equipment and decorations but the event was, even before the final tally, a success.  I hope we made money in the end, but ultimately the success was in showcasing the efforts of our geography 495 class.

For me, the highlight of the night was seeing the ways in which all of our individual efforts came together to produce something larger than ourselves. I was incredibly impressed by the way we were all able to pool our resources and come up with such an event.  From donations of food, beer and silent auction items, to home-cooked food, to a very wonderful interactive theater component.  I was impressed by the food, as I’m sure many others were.  I was also very impressed at the interactive theater, and observing from behind my table I think the crowd liked it as well.  I was especially touched at Dona Vicky’s talk about her struggle in Oaxaca.

I enjoyed watching the many, many people that came in the end to support our cause, and people of every age seemed to be having fun, enjoying the food, and dancing.  I was pleasantly surprised at the turnout!   There were certainly times when I wondered how we were going to pull the whole thing off, but now I see how putting trust in each other, and supporting each other can accomplish great things.

Isn’t that what solidarity is all about, in the end?

We spent the semester learning about solidarity, what it means and how to do it, and we took every opportunity to be in solidarity with Dona Vicky and CIPO-VAN.  In the end, I think our greatest accomplishment was learning how to be in solidarity with each other as we launched a cookbook, made delicious food, and threw an amazing event.

Thanks to everyone in this class, without each and every one of you this class would not have been the same.
Jessica.

Reflections

Yesterday I arrived at Raul’s house in Kits just after 1:00 pm to help out with the long and challenging task of cooking the feast for tonight’s event. In a Guelaguetza, food is a perhaps the cornerstone of the celebration and a major factor that brings people together so that community can be fostered. This meant that our job was very important and crucial to the success of the event. Our task was to chop all the vegetables, prepare all the banana leaves, and roll enough cooked potatoes into tortillas to make roughly 1,200 taquitos. I love to cook and cook regularly for myself, my roommates, and my friends all the time. I have even been ‘captain of the kitchen’ cooking Thanksgiving dinner for upwards of 20 people five times. However, this is the first time I have ever attempted to cook a meal to serve hundreds.

While I came there full of energy and enthusiasm, at times, the task at hand felt daunting. We would chop 20 pounds of tomatoes and look around the table congratulating each other, and then Dona Vicky would bring out another 20 pounds and tell say, ‘ok, now cut these.’ At times my eyes would narrow in on the heaping mounds of potatoes in front of me and a look of terror would creep over me. However with the aid of friendly and encouraging people around the table, and a large bottle of Mezcal, slowly but surely, we got the job done.

However, what amazed me throughout this process was the incredible attitude that Dona Vicky brought to the table. In the nine hours I spent by her side in the kitchen, not once did she seemed stressed or did she give off the appearance that this incredibly challenging feat would be impossible. She spent the night laughing (though sometimes a little maniacally) telling stories, smiling, and encouraging us through kindness, patience, and humor. She had begun this task long before I arrived, and will continue long after I leave, and it was amazing to see the hard work, dedication, and love that she brings in preparing this food. She brought a strength and endurance with her that was remarkable. Sometimes I would struggle for several minutes trying not to burn myself on a hot tortilla. Dona Vicky would notice this, come over with a puzzled look and wide grin, and pick it up with her bare hands, laughing. Cooking with her yesterday made me appreciate the hard work that she puts into cooking, which plays such a large part in strengthening community.

The other day I was sitting in The Foundation eating a bowl of soup, when I noticed a quote on the wall by an aboriginal activist that struck me. It said:

“ If you have come here to help me, you are wasting your time. But if  you have

come because  your liberation is bound up with mine, then let  us work together.”

I feel that in many ways, this quote summed up the main message of what this class has taught me, and I feel proud to say that I feel that we have achieved this ideal.

Thanks for a great class everyone,

Emily Hager

Continuing with solidarity…

As our time as a class draws to an end, i think we have to ask ourselves a few very important questions. We have spent the past four months together, learning about solidarity and ways in which it affects our daily lives. We have also had the opportunity to work along side some very knowledgeable people including, Dona Vicky, Geoff, Juanita and all the members of CIPO Van. It has truly been an honour to work along side all of you, as your knowledge is so incredibly valuable.

All of them have devoted a lot of time and effort to our class. I mean, Dona Vicky travelled all the way from Mexico to be here with us! I think we owe it to them to continue to promote solidarity and to make the final event something to never forget.

From the time of the first class until today, solidarity has drastically changed for me. I have learned so much about a topic that i originally thought I already understood. I am a very privileged individual. The ‘flower of power’ exercise we did in class made me realize this. Male, caucasian, middle class, heterosexual etc. It really opened my eyes to the different forms of being oppressed. It was those types of exercises that I will take out of this class.

In the next week or so, we will have the opportunity to put what we learned in class into a practical event. People in this class have been working very hard, both during class but as well as putting in many hours outside of class time to make sure the final event is a success. I am very impressed with the level of dedication everyone has shown to the final event and I truly believe that all of this hard work will pay off in the end.

Once the final event is over, what can we do to continue being involved in solidarity in one shape or form once this class has ended? Will people from this class continue to built upon what we have learned and go beyond our university setting to continue to promote solidarity?

I think it is important to stayed involved with CIPO Van, or perhaps another solidarity group, after this course has finished. I don’t want to jump ahead and overlook the final event, but i think it is something that we should all be considering. It is an important question to ask.

I cannot wait for the final event. I hope that everyone is as excited and eager as I am for that day to finally arrive! Great work everyone

– Sam Wallace

The Power of Food and Community

I see it happen time and again, and the more I see it the more I am blown away.

What I’m referring to is the act of uniting people through food. As other posts before me have pointed out, this “coming together” to prepare and share food has been an integral part of the course so far. Through the cookbook sessions with Dona Vicky, we are brought into this rewarding process, which generally plays out as follows:

Step 1. Ditch normal, everyday activities

Step 2. Bus/bike through Vancouver, to be welcomed with smiles into a foreign kitchen

Step 3. Figure out where you can help with food prep

Step 4. Chat

Step 5. Laugh

Step 6. Work together

Step 7. Watch as classmates become friends

Step 8. Enjoy a delicious meal together

Step 9. Go home with a full stomach and a full heart

Step 10. Look forward to next cooking event

Based on this alone, I would argue that food-sharing is a key part of the sense of community that has been generated within the class.

It was amazing to see that sense of community expand beyond the class last Friday (April 9^th) at the Community Eats lunch event. Community Eats is a student-volunteer initiative run through Sprouts, the student food coop on UBC campus. Every Thursday, a delicious meal is cooked using food collected from grocers and distributors – food which would otherwise be thrown out due to appearance (i.e. blemishes, bruises, etc), quality, or damage (i.e. broken or punctured packaging). On Friday, free lunch is served to all who bring their own reusable container. On the 9^th, Community Eats was generous enough to let us take over the kitchen and serve up Community Eats, Oaxacan style.

On the day of the event, the atmosphere was incredible. People were chatting, bobbing to the Latin music, buying Oaxacan goods from Dona Vicky, enjoying food, and checking out the banners and information available. Whether you cooked, set-up, ate, or were just THERE, you were part of the vibrant, short-term community that was formed. Thank you!

Standing in the food line with some friends, I was looking at a hand-out communicating the who, what, when, why, and where of our larger event, Solidarity Speaks and Eats: A Guelaguetza, on April 23^rd. I came to the “Why” section:

“Why: To bring people together and raise money/awareness for our campaign”

And it hit me. “To bring people together”. Yes, exactly. That is what we are trying to accomplish through our acts of solidarity; that is what we are doing. We are bringing people together into a community, where we can better recognize the ways in which we are connected. And time and again food has proved to be the catalyst in the creation of this type of community.

Sound cheesy? Maybe a bit. Cheesy or not, I can’t wait to see what kind of community is going to be fostered through food on the 23^rd.

-Dru Y.-

Solidarity Simplified

Since we have spent so much time speaking about our activities under Solidarity, I thought that it would be a good idea to actually outline what Solidarity (to me) even means…

So ladies and gentlemen, as we are still getting to know one another, we might as well start this relationship off honestly and well… I have a confession to make, actually several….

1. I am from a middle to high income family.
2. I am Caucasian.
3. I hold a Canadian passport and can travel to 154 countries in the world as a tourist without a visa.
4. I have received a university degree.
5. I have never had to take out a loan and owe no debt.
6. I am employed. The minimum wage in Oaxaca in 2009 was $4.49 Canadian Dollars per day. Last year I made more than 17 times that per day while only working part-time and under student wages.

Now it’s your turn to share – it’s ok, don’t worry, you don’t need to say it out loud, just answer for yourself, anything in common?

Well if there is, then you are probably asking yourself the same seemingly insurmountable question I found myself facing three months ago… all things considered, how can I even attempt to understand oppression and social injustice? Well the truth is, I can’t. I have never personally experienced it and until I do, I won’t be able to understand it, and if your case is anything like mine, there’s a good chance you won’t either. The thing is, just because we have never experienced it, or don’t understand it, doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist and now that we have acknowledged it, we have a responsibility as global citizens to facilitate change.

Solidarity movements create arenas not only for those who are fighting oppression but also for individuals such as myself, who want to be involved with the struggle, but who aren’t sure how to make their way in. Unlike many movements in the world, Solidarity does not require its participants to meet specific requirements, but rather, it works better when they don’t. It celebrates differences and works so as to use individuality as a mechanism with which to strengthen the collective, providing the momentum for much needed change.

It’s amazing really, when one enters the limitless realm of Solidarity, the connections that are formed and the relationships that are created. So far our class has united three generations, multiple faiths, a diversity of ethnicities and virtually every combination of experience you can imagine into one well-balanced and charismatic community. Ironically, just about the only thing “solid” about Solidarity is the level of intimacy developed amongst its many activists. I have found myself cooking in my peers’ kitchens on Wednesday nights, sitting cross-legged on tables during lecture with my knees touching those of my neighbor, and cozying up around picnic tables at the UBC Farm sipping on hot soup made fresh by our Oaxacan guest and Elder, Doña Vicky…

So now I wonder, what was it that I had doubts about when I made my earlier confession..? And more so, does any of it really matter? I may not understand oppression, but I do understand Solidarity and my dear reader, I give you my word that you certainly can too. All it takes is choice. The choice to not only acknowledge differences, but to also celebrate them. The choice to use ‘variety’ as a means of incorporating individualism into a common collective cause. The choice to identify that we are all students and we are all teachers, we all give and we all receive, we are neither black nor white but all the endless shades in between.

“To recognize the social solidarity of the human family brings with it the responsibility to build on what makes us one. This means promoting effectively and without exception the equal dignity of all as human beings endowed with certain fundamental and inalienable human rights. This touches all aspects of our individual life, as well as our life in the family, in the community in which we live, an in the world. Once we truly grasp that we are brothers and sisters in a common humanity, then we can shape our attitudes towards life in the light of the solidarity which makes us one.” (John Paul II)

Solidarity isn’t by any means easy, but it is certainly far from impossible. By reading this, you’ve already acknowledged your differences and you recognize their ability to help spark momentum for collective change – now, it’s up to you to make a choice.

– Anna H.